Rosalyn D'Mello: Home is everywhere I am

For me its an evolving study of how it is possible to customise the subject of ones belonging through itinerant domesticityEvery fifteen minutes the church bells ring I have yet to discover whether they have been preprogrammed or if this bilingual village has a designated timekeeper When I arrived last Saturday each gong felt distinct and momentous I have since grown more accustomed to this recurring sonic intervention but ever so often it still has a way of punctuating the hour dividing it into four neat 15minute portions each hourly gong reminding me not only that every second counts but also of how much time I have left in Europe my visa is for exactly 55 daysAslAumlplusmn my Turkish artist friend whose home I visited and lived in for a week last June arrived in Eppan a day after I did It is she who is responsible for my invitation to this residency in an apartment in a village in the St Michel area of Eppan in BolzanoBozen a now autonomous region whose two names serve as a reminder of its curious position within Italy and its AustroGerman heritage We were in conversation with each other on Monday April 16 Someone in the audience asked her about her itinerant lifestyle more nomadic than mine She replied by mentioning a series of meditations she follows devised by a Buddhist monk With every step she is instructed to breathe in and out while chanting this simple mantra I am home I have arrivedWe each carry different notions of home with us like extra baggage We associate the word with a range of familiarities linguistic culinary geographic to name but a few the full extent of which are revealed only when we undertake the risk of travel Suddenly the identities you otherwise hold unquestioningly when you are in the site of your regular residence get more complex and nuanced Me I become suddenly aware of my status as a postcolonial citizen My dark skin feels darker still my accent gets confused and I become more fully aware of being from the third worldWhen I arrive at whatever destination I am temporarily to call home I begin a nuanced process of inhabiting it On Wednesday morning when I woke up and cooked what has become for AslAumlplusmn and I a kind of farewell breakfast bhurji she remarked that I seemed so at home it was like I had been living here for at least two weeks She was on to something cooking is my most intuitive strategy Foraging through local markets for ingredients is my way of establishing the lay of the land what it is capable of producing what it believes it yields in abundance what flavours seem unfamiliar to its territory and which are encoded into its regional DNAWhen I met one of my coresidents Elif Erkan in Milano the afternoon after Id landed from New Delhi I asked her what it was like in Eppan She said it was like being in The Sound of Music When I was taken on a long bike ride by Kathrin and Sarah Oberrauch the lovely sisters who run this residency called EauampGaz from St Michel towards a stunning lakeside in neighbouring Kalterer See I realised how apt her description was except I hadnt imagined as many vineyards spreading out for miles the grape fruit in full bloom readying for harvest yield I am surrounded by snowcapped mountain peaks and luscious greenery Dandelions sprout on every wayside speckling the spring landscape with a sunny yellow sheenI am sharing the apartment with Elif also from Istanbul but fluent in German and French apart from Turkish This time she is the embodiment of my guardian angel the universe always designates one such person per trip and even though she is busy making work she functions unassumingly like a homemaker We share this proclivity this need to feed and nourish others and derive sustenance from acts of unintentional generosity Masatoshi our Japanese coresident has to bear the brunt of our combined maternal tendencies but he does so ungrudgingly It hasnt yet been a week since I arrived but we have slipped into a collective intimacy We have configured our individual work routines despite our cohabitation Through the day we intuitively share household chores The evenings are usually winefuelled Over homecooked meals we inadvertently share our personal and manifold notions of our diverse homes It is a welcome break from the seduction of cloistered solitude that marks my writing practice in my apartment in Delhi It is also for me an evolving study of how it is possible to customise the subject of ones belonging through itinerant domesticity Yes I am home I have arrived And yes I will arrive again and be home once more This new truth is what I remind myself of each time the bells tollDeliberating on the life and times of Everywoman Rosalyn DMello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover She tweets RosaParx Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download 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